Cinelerra is a
prosumer non-linear video editing system. It is designed for the
Linux operating system. It is produced by
Heroine Virtual, and is
free software distributed under the
GNU General Public License. Cinelerra also includes a video
compositing engine, allowing the user to perform common compositing operations such as
keying and
mattes.
Cinelerra was first released August 1, 2002, and was based in part on an earlier product known as Broadcast 2000. Broadcast 2000 was withdrawn by Heroine Virtual in September 2001.
Notable features
Cinelerra includes support for very high-fidelity audio and video: it processes audio using 64 bits of precision, and can work in both
RGBA and
YUVA color spaces, using floating-point and 16-bit integer representations, respectively. It is
resolution and
frame rate-independent, meaning that it can support video of any speed and size. The application has a wide range of features.
Cinelerra interface
Cinelerra's interface is similar to that of other
nonlinear video-editing systems, such as
Adobe Premiere Pro. However, because it includes a compositing engine, it may also be likened to compositing software such as
Adobe After Effects or
Shake. The user is presented with four screens:
# The
timeline, which gives the user a time-based view of all video and audio tracks in the project, as well as
keyframe data for e.g. camera movement, effects, or opacity;
# the
viewer, which gives the user a method of "scrubbing" through footage;
# the
resource window, which presents the user with a view of all audio and video resources in the project, as well as available audio and video effects and transitions; and
# the
compositor, which presents the user with a view of the final project as it would look when rendered. The compositor is interactive in that it allows the user to adjust the positions of video objects; it also updates in response to user input.
Cinelerra's interface is frequently criticized because it does not conform to either
GNOME or
KDE Human interface guidelines.
Cinelerra usage and awards
Cinelerra has gained ground among some Linux enthusiasts looking for a native video editing system. Professional use is mostly promoted by
Linux Media Arts, which sells an integrated hardware and software package for video production that includes Cinelerra.
At the National Association of Broadcasters' 2004 Electronic Media Show, Cinelerra was awarded Bob Turner's "MAKING THE CUT" award. The award is given to "the best and most exciting postproduction products seen at the convention".
The Community Version
Heroine Virtual generates a new release of Cinelerra semi-annually, available as source code only. Any bugs and usability issues found and resolved by the community that are submitted to Heroine Virtual often result in no immediate response, and it is not until a new release that there is any indication that Heroine Virtual has incorporated these changes. Because of both the latency in development and the distribution-specific nature of the release, a group of free and open-source software developers created their own version of Cinelerra referred to as Cinelerra-CV (where CV stands for
Community Version).
Cinelerra-CV allows the community to contribute to an open repository where changes to the code are accessible to everyone. Mailing lists and an IRC channel exist where more experienced users and developers can provide support to less experienced users, and developers can hold technical discussions. Cinelerra-CV is also packaged for a wider range of distributions. It also has a different compilation system: system libraries are used extensively, and the autoconf/automake tools are used to configure the compilation system.
Although Cinelerra-CV may technically be called a fork, the relationship between Heroine Virtual and Cinelerra-CV is rather friendly. Heroine Virtual at times contributes to discussions on the mailing lists, and incorporates many of the changes made in the repository. Heroine Virtual posted the following message on their website describing the relationship:
What you'll find here is the heroinewarrior version of Cinelerra. This is the version that supports what we need to do at Heroine Virtual Ltd. and is the same tree that was started in 1997. As time passes and new students come and go from the Linux scene, new forks of Cinelerra emerge that are more suited to the community but not what Heroine Virtual Ltd. needs. Today you'll probably find the cinelerra.org fork more useful.
They allow certain parts of our fork into their fork while contributing anything they want while we allow certain parts of their fork into our fork while contributing anything we want".
The versioning of Cinelerra-CV follows that of Heroine Virtual. After Heroine Virtual produces a release, Cinelerra-CV examines the changes introduced by the new version and merges them into their version. CV is appended to the end of the version number to indicate the community version. (For example, after the 2.1 merger the CV version is labeled 2.1CV.)
Lumiera rewrite
In the beginning of April 2008, the Cinelerra community announced a complete rewrite of the current community version, named as Lumiera. It was born as a rewrite of the Cinelerra codebase called Cinelerra3 but soon was separated into an independent project with its own name. Lumiera is still in an early stage of development, but has been making continuous process (as of 5/2011) and now has a binary Debian build of the development preview available.
See also
Comparison of video editing software
Kdenlive
PiTiVi
References
External links
Cinelerra-CV - The community version of Cinelerra
An online manual (twiki)
Cinelerra: Rough and ready video editor
Editing With Cinelerra (series comparing with MainActor)
Category:2002 software
Category:Video editing software
Category:Free video software
